+1.970.776.4355 · Loveland, CO · Russ Krajec, principal Currently accepting Fractional Chief IP Officer engagements →

  • The Endless Science Project

    Some startups are the Endless Science Project. They start from a “cool” technological idea and work on endless science projects. They run one science project for a while, get tired of it, and move on to another one. Investors enable this to happen, and we, as investors, need to wean the entrepreneur.

  • Calling yourself an “Expert”

    I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue, than why I have one. – Cato the Elder, from Plutarch’s Lives

  • Patents Age Like Fine Wine

    We like to think about patents as call options on technology. With a call option, you have the opportunity, but not the obligation, to cash in the option before it expires.

  • Trading on the Differences

    Every time you see a news story or read a blog about a topic you know very well, it is amazing that the stories have lots of factual problems. This is not a problem, it is opportunity.

  • IP Valuation in a Regulatory Framework

    Regulatory requirements trump patents as the primary form of protection or moat[1] against a business.

  • The Government is the Worst Customer – and the Worst Investor

    We will always invest where Adam Smith’s “Invisible Hand” is pushing things forward, and avoid businesses where the regulator’s pen can wipe it out.

  • Handing the Keys to the Drunken Sailor and Hoping You Get Home

    Letting the CTO manage patent policy is bad for business.

  • Pitching Investors is Not “One-and-Done”

    I have the enviable position of seeing lots of inventors who bootstrapped their companies along before they take outside investment (if they take any outside investment at all). This is – without question – the single best way to build a business.

  • Registration Numbers

    When I review patent applications, I always download the full prosecution history of the patent from the USPTO. The prosecution history is the formal, legal record of the back-and-forth between the applicant and the Patent Office, and includes all the papers as originally filed, as well as the rejections from the examiner and the responses…

  • Waiting Room Inventors

    A friend who is an angel investor asked my opinion on a company. I did not like it for a number of reasons, not the least of which was their poor IP strategy.